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33 Comments
- hater2win, on 10/11/2007, -6/+19Ok? So gamestop is having a sales competition, sponsored by Sony. What's the big deal? Companies have sales contests all the time. It isn't strange to see when you work in retail. It's kinda like when you sold as many candies as you could in elementary in hopes of getting a prize.
- Renton, on 10/11/2007, -2/+10Game companies have been doing things like this for years. Moving on...
- jacksons98, on 10/11/2007, -1/+5This is common practice in the industry. Just an fyi all the big manufacturers from time to time offer these promotions or incentives. Sometimes they are sales contests other times they give you "prizes" to attend webinars or conferences to learn more about their products. Other times you get a mystery giftcard sent to you. I remember when the original Xbox launched Microsoft said if we completed their online training and sold 10 we got one free.
- RoadDoggFL, on 10/11/2007, -3/+7"Playstation 3 games (and they only offer Sony-published ones, so Motorstorm, Resistance, Genji, and NBA '07 are the only ones currently offered) cost 3450 points to purchase. Since these games are $60, the point/dollar ratio is 57.5 points per dollar. 20k points is almost $350 in games. They do not currently offer the purchase of PS3s on their website."
I would _not_ jump through hoops for that *****. - HappyScrappy, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3This happens all the time, in all kinds of industries. I can't tell you how many free Canon inkjet printers my mom got from Canon working retail at CompUSA in sales promotions. Calm down, fanboys.
- Wrathernaut, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Only the managers get squat out of it. Employees get to deal with customers sick of being asked if they want a PS3 to go along with every purchase.
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -6/+9exactly , this is the least surprising story I have read all day.
When I was at McDonalds we used to do the same thing only selling apple pies.
This is a curiosity not a story... but damn it seems sony bashing is diggs new passtime - jacksons98, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3What's illegal about rewarding sales people for actually doing their job, ie selling stuff. As a manufacturer if you want to get people to sell your merchandise there are a few ways to go about it. 1) lower your cost to the sales rep (more profit) or 2) reward them thru contests and prizes for moving your merchandise.
I'm not sure what is illegal about that. It happens in every industry, you want to make sales reward the people who sell. - inactive, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3Its exactly the same only the price scale and product are different,
They are there to sell games and systems
At McDonald's I was there to sell burgers and pies
"Buy this PS3 , it goes great with your HDTV and the games are awesome" goes home collects rewards for effort
"Buy this apple pie, it goes great with hamburgers and the taste is awesome' goes home collects rewards for effort
and don't tell me gamestop employees are supposed to be a platform indifferent retailer or something , they will sell for whoever makes them the most money and pushes them the most incentives, welcome to the free market - inactive, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2@omg
Doesn't matter , there is nothing that says they have to be neutral, and in this world they are going to push products based on their own best intrest. If its in your best intrest to score 350$ in sony gear by pushing sony, thats what you're gonna do, regardless of other choices on the shelf.
Unbiased sales reps are few and far between , you wade through a sea of fanboys and incentives to get what you think you want and they are under no real obligation to do anything but look out for themselves - flair1, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2The term for this is called a SPIF, Sales Promotion Incentive Fund (sometimes written SPIFF)
If you are a salesperson and don't get SPIFs than you are in the wrong job. SPIFs can make you a lot of money. - ELblackSHEEP, on 03/12/2009, -0/+1Gawtie should rename this "Attention: RED MEAT for all PS3 hater's".
- SfOwnsLa, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Pretty old news. Ever heard of RLS? Its been going on for yrs. They just test you on games, and you get games for free.
- reb42, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2Remember what was said about the PS2... does it seem to eerily echo what is being said of its successor? All things aside and even considering the higher price versus the 360, I think the PS3 is the better console (propriety UPnP extensions, thanks Microsoft).
- wushi, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2what part of "drop the price/make good games" don't they get???
instead they try lame sales competitions... - darincm, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1big deal. as pointed out by others, this has been going on for years & happens in every industry. remember the glory days of payola with radio stations & the record companies? oh wait....
- RetlawST, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Despite the similarities between the systems as far as critics are concerned, the PS2 had much better selling percentages (number of purchases/number of machines available).
This is just from the standpoint of a gamer trying to recall the difficulty of getting a ps2 at launch. - flair1, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1To add, if Sony wasn't spiffing Gamestop employees to sell PS3s then I would be more surprised. They need to do something to pick up sales.
- Bodhesatva, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1Yeah, I still don't get why "Other companies have done this before!" makes it okay. They should all be punished, unless someone can explain to me why this isn't illegal (I'm not an expert, so an explanation from an actual attorney would really help). From a laymen's perspective, this looks precisely like payola.
If I'm given rewards for pushing one product in my store over a competing one -- regardless of my actual preferences -- how is that NOT a bribe? - Brew, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1I dont really care, except that I hope the PS3 drops in price so I can get a bluray player on the cheap.
- afx1, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1BREAKING NEWS: Sony wants to improve PS3 sales
- proxima, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1I was actually more referring to the fact that here it is a separate manufacturer rewarding the vendor whereas with the McDonald's example it is the company rewarding its employees. If the apple pies were made by an outside vendor who then decided to reward McDonalds employees to push their product, it would be a similar situation.
- jacksons98, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1You mean the HD-DVD addon that is being discontinued. Sounds like the right option to me /sarcasm
- Cyber_Akuma, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1"Being the newest and marketed as the most powerful one would think it's be like all previous PS releases."
Umm, the N64 was more powerful than the PS1, and the GC and Xbox were more powerful than the PS2. Yet the PS1 and PS2 did the best in those generations. - inactive, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1@Chris
I think what he is getting at is that McDonald's only sells McDonald's food, with the exception of soft drinks. Gamestop, however, does not make a business out of selling Gamestop consoles. They are supposed to sell all consoles so when one of their suppliers offers an incentive for spending more of their time pushing a specific product, it kind of dilutes their supposedly unbiased waters.
Because Gamestop is essentially a 3rd party, they would ideally just give the customer an unbiased perspective on the items they sell. It's kind of like if you went into an Apple store, of course they would try to push IPods because it's an Apple store; however, if I went into Fry's or Microcenter or something looking for an mp3 player, I wouldn't exactly expect the sales rep to spend time pushing IPods onto me when there are other alternatives simply because he may get a few Apple Bux (or whatever the incentive may be).
In my experience, if any incentives are offered to employees for selling any particular product, it's usually an incentive that comes from the retailer (due to slumping sales of that product/department or a higher profit margin on sales of that product), not the supplier. That may not be the way all retail works, but again this is how it has worked from my (limited) experience. I think this is the idea that proxima was trying to get across. - Shiftgood, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1burried as lame.
- inactive, on 10/11/2007, -3/+2I think sony recalling the ps3 and re-releasing a better system would do alot more for sales than some pimple faced turbo nerd telling you that you need some over priced pile of crap.
- Bodhesatva, on 10/11/2007, -4/+2Okay, so people have done this before. That doesn't make it any better. I really don't buy the excuse "but lots of other people did it!" to justify your own behavior. Those other companies that have engaged in this practice should cease doing so as well.
I really am curious how this isn't illegal. Not being coy here: I just don't understand how this isn't simply a payola type scheme. Sony is encouraging Gamestop employees to push the PS3 particularly hard in order to earn rewards from their company. Again: how is that not a bribe? If anyone can tell me what the difference is, I'd be interested. Honest question. - Wilpower, on 10/11/2007, -2/+0Yes there is nothing unusual about this.
Picture working in sales for a large computer parts distributor. A hard drive manufacture walks in with a huge stack of $5 bills. You get $5 for ever hardrive you sell of a particular make and model they want to push. The rep from the manufacture would walk around all day peeling 5's of the stack the stack and handing to them to us as we sold them. All our customers knew about this drive in depth from there on in. Seriously, at that job we made more in spiffs like this than we got in paychecks. - Cyber_Akuma, on 10/11/2007, -7/+4Sony: Getting a little desperate? Us? No no, of course not, we're not desperate!
- RetlawST, on 10/11/2007, -3/+0While I think it's shady (as far as trying to find honest salespeople...if they exist), I don't think it looks illegal at all. It's very similar to a vacuum company giving its salespeople perks for selling the most of their new product. If Sony wants to reward Gamestop employees for pushing their over-priced system, all the more power to them.
- unangst, on 10/11/2007, -5/+1Time to push back.
- proxima, on 10/11/2007, -8/+2Chris-
That's not the same thing at all.
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